


At a Glance

by Creatortan



Series: Red Tulips and Forget-Me-Nots [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: (sorta) - Freeform, F/M, First Impressions, First Meetings, Sparring, Unrequited Crush, but mipha shows him who's boss, i lov my girl mipha, revali is a proud jerk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-21 19:17:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11363901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Creatortan/pseuds/Creatortan
Summary: Revali didn't think much of Mipha at first, none of them do, really. Then she challenges him to a spar and shows him what the Zora are made of, and Revali's reevaluating his first impression of the pretty Zora princess.





	At a Glance

She was introduced as a healer, and Revali thought it much too fitting for her demeanor. Her smile was shy and kind. She greeted each of them by name with a kind of joyful earnestness Revali had considered almost naive. She was...soft, he thought back then--too soft to be on the battlefield. When she came to Revali, her grip on his wing was gentle, but he was surprised to feel her hands were rough with calluses. She met his eyes fearlessly, he realized, unintimidated by any of them--not of their towering statures or fierce reputations.

The Lady Mipha thought herself on the same level as her fellow champions, and Revali had to at least give her that: she had guts. 

But that was about the end of his opinion. He thought her kind of cute and not much else.

\--

She slotted into their group easily. In fact, she seemed to bring everyone together a little more, with her approachable air and good nature. Even in the case of her Beast. Her connection with Vah Ruta seemed a familiar one to her; the massive, ancient weapon of war was almost  _ affectionate  _ to her. 

But despite her good standing, no one expected much of her. Which is why it was such a surprise she was able to master control of Ruta so quickly. Though in hindsight, Revali wasn’t all that shocked. The Beasts had minds of their own, and if Ruta liked Mipha that’s all there was to it. 

It was an even bigger surprise to see her on the battlefield. 

Again, they all should’ve expected her to be able to handle herself--she wasn’t the Zora Champion for just her pretty face. They were all still getting used to each other, so it was a little awkward when Mipha approached the training grounds announcing her wishes to spar with someone. The others didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but a quick shared look revealed they had thought her too fragile and delicate to fight, much like how they saw Princess Zelda.

Revali was the one to finally approach her. 

“Look,  _ Princess--”  _ He put emphasis on her title, thinking it would deter her. “--we all know we’re the best fighters of our people, but the Zora aren’t exactly known for warfare, are they?” 

Mipha laughed. Laughed right in Revali’s face, in that inoffensive, beautiful way her voice flowed like music. She stared down Revali’s stunned look with her head tilted. She was smiling, but there was something mischievous underneath it.

“Why don’t we spar, then,” she said lightly, “and you can show me exactly what the  _ Rito  _ are known for?” 

Revali was almost too affronted to argue, so he squawked out his agreement instead. They came up with some quick ground rules: Revali couldn’t be too high up in the air for too long, just as Mipha couldn’t be under the water for too long. No elemental weapons or attacks. Revali couldn’t fry her in the water just as she couldn’t freeze him midair. The “arena” was a calm area of a river, with a few rock formations if they needed solid footing. Revali stood on one boulder, Mipha on the other. 

“Revali!” She called out to him. It was the first time she had said his name, but there was something in her voice that nearly made him shudder. As he squinted at her, he could’ve sworn something in her smile had turned almost predatory.  _ “Don’t  _ go easy on me.”

Then Zelda finished her countdown, and Mipha had dived into the water. Revali flew up to get a visual, looking for the dark blurb near the surface of the water. The sun glinted off the surface, and he growled under his breath as the reflections blocked his sight of her. He risked flying a little lower, itching to get to his bow. Then he saw motion from the corner of his eye, and spun midair to shoot an arrow towards it. He made the mistake of tracking the movement of the arrow, and lost sight of her again.

He swore. If they were just going to be at a standstill he wouldn’t have let her challenge him. Just as he had that thought, however, something flew past him, ruffling the feathers on his side. There she was, torso above water, a smirk on her face. That’s when Revali noticed the Zora spear in her hand, and the others strapped to her back.

He didn’t have time to hesitate, and shot three arrows in quick succession towards her, noting, smugly, how she almost stumbled in her dodge.  _ Now  _ the fight was on. They both worked fluidly, gaging one another’s movements before striking--Revali with his arrows, Mipha with her spears--and dodging. It reminded Revali of a dance; it was kind of fun. 

But again, they were at a standstill. They were both waiting for the other to trip up, to run out of stamina or trip up. Suddenly, Mipha was underwater. She was incredibly fast and Revali struggled to keep sight of her. He lost track of the blurb, realizing she had gone down further to the bottom of the lake. Before he could prepare himself, he heard a loud splash behind him, water spraying on his feathers. Mipha was eye to eye with him, her eyes hardened as they met his before she was back in the water. Revali crossed the lake. The second he slowed down to try and come up with a plan--another splash, this time behind him and much,  _ much  _ closer. 

Revali couldn’t figure out what she was doing, splashing around again and again. He had to keep dodging her, but she wasn’t attacking, and she was too fast for him to properly attack. He couldn’t see her coming and he couldn’t guess why she was doing it. It was like she was deliberately missing him, getting just out of arm’s reach so she couldn’t touch him. Really, all she was doing was disturbing the water--

Revali’s eyes widened--that clever  _ wench.  _ She was trying to  _ waterlog him-- _ to  _ ground him.  _ He tried to fly higher, but it seemed she was one step ahead of him. This time, when she leapt out of the air, she was close enough to  _ grab Revali  _ and  _ drag him down. _ Revali struggled to keep in the air, trying to twist out of her grip. She was heavier than he imagined, but not to the point where he couldn’t support them both, but  _ god  _ how strong was she? Her grip was like iron around his waist as she tried to climb up his body. 

Eventually, one of her claws dug into Revali’s upper wing--unintentionally, he could tell--but it was enough to make him lose his focus, sending them both falling into the water. Revali felt a sharp stab of  _ fear  _ as he felt the free-fall. 

Mipha let go of him only a split second before they hit the surface of the lake. Revali didn’t even have time to flail to save himself before he was being dragged to the nearest rock and heaved up onto it. When he felt that solid surface under him, he quickly righted himself, standing on the edge of the formation. Mipha stood at the other side, trident at the ready, waiting for him.

It seemed she wanted to bring them onto equal footing. Fine then. If it was hand-to-hand she wanted, that’s what she was going to get. Revali took his feathered edge from his waist. 

Their battle was fast and  _ exhilarating.  _ Mipha’s style blended almost too well with Revali’s. She would keep her distance as she tried to get a few stabs at him, keeping her body away from his blade, and in return, Revali dodged her trident, even being so bold as to  _ grab  _ at it in an attempt to move in closer, only for Mipha to wrench back control. Even sopping wet, Revali was quick on his feet. His mind was completely in the battle, lost in the jabbing, rapid motions and metallic crash of their weapons. 

Eventually, it seemed Revali was gaining the upper hand, slowly pushing Mipha back and easing into blade’s reach. He could almost see her mapping out her options through her hard gaze. With another sharp push, Revali forced her to take a step backwards. She stumbled. Feeling victorious already, Revali took hold of her trident again, feathered edge at the ready. He was thinking of how he was going to congratulate her for a good fight--when Mipha surged forward out of nowhere, startling Revali as she jerked her trident to the side. The sharp tip caught on Revali’s cheek. His hand still around her weapon, she angrily tried to wrangle it away from him in large, powerful movements. She pushed the rod against his throat, her snarl showing all of her jagged teeth. Her eyes were dilated. Revali vaguely remembered something about Zora and blood and  _ slaughter  _ as the wound on his cheek slowly dripped down the side of his face. In that moment, Revali feared for his  _ life.  _

He brought up both hands to the trident to push it away, carelessly dropping his feathered edge to the ground. As he heard the metal clang against the floor, the trident suddenly eased up. The lack of pressure had Revali falling forward, scrambling to catch himself as the red and white in his vision was replaced with jagged gray. 

His beak hit the ground awkwardly, sending painful, throbbing shockwaves through his skull. Revali’s vision whited out from the fall, and the screech of metal on the rock felt as though it cut deeper than any of his physical wounds. There was a pressure on the center of his back. 

“Revali of the Rito, do you concede?” Her trident stabbed into the ground directly in front of his face. The glare aggravated Revali’s head. 

Instead of a response, he groaned miserably. Now that the adrenaline was petering out, his entire body ached, his cuts burned, and his soaked feathers were giving him a chill.

“I’m going to assume that’s your surrender.” Revali could hear the amusement in her voice. The pressure on his back--her foot, probably--lifted, and the trident left his line of sight. Her voice softened, but only slightly. “Are you alright?”

Revali groaned again. He shut his eyes. Then there was a presence at his side and hands running over his back and a wonderful flowing sensation of  _ relief.  _ It soothed over his headache like a salve and made all the aching muscles in his body feel lighter. 

“I am going to need to see your front to heal the rest of your wounds, and I would very much like to get an  _ actual sentence  _ out of you, Revali.” 

With his headache calmed, the pained fog over his thoughts dissipated, and Revali realized what had just happened.

He lost to Mipha in one of the most exciting and challenging fights he’d had in awhile.

Revali rolled over. He looked up at Mipha, the soft, kind smile usually on her face was instead a playful grin. The sun behind her glistened off of her scales and the pebbles of blood from her wounds, and when Revali sat up the shadows of her face shifted, and he saw the discolored bruise on her cheek. 

“You tricked me…” Revali muttered. Mipha’s hand hovered over the wound on his cheek, almost forcing him to meet her eyes in a facsimile of a caress. Her claws tickled his feathers.

“You see, Revali, the Zora are not widely known for warfare for this simple fact:” She leaned in close, smile widening to again show all her teeth, the shadow of Revali’s larger form covering her face. Her eyes glinted dangerously. 

_ “We do not often leave survivors.”  _

Then she backed away, and Mipha returned to the picture of innocence. She stood gracefully and walked to the ledge of the rock formation. She flashed Revali a teasing smile, and dove into the water. 

Revali blinked, trying to take in the confusing, fluttering feeling in his chest. 

Mipha was...certainly  _ something,  _ wasn’t she?


End file.
